Key Findings Details

Using data from the Cognitive Economics Study, we find strong patterns of greater financial knowledge, as measured by financial literacy scores, for individuals who sort into occupations with at least some exposure to financial and investment content.

We also find some suggestive evidence, which is stronger with the HRS data, that this occupational spillover (of financial concepts to one’s financial knowledge) may translate into greater wealth accumulation.

The policy implication is that individuals do seem to benefit from greater financial literacy.